Tag: Fall

Pie-baking, sweater-wearing, blanket-snuggling, steamy mug-sipping, pumpkin picking. Of the many fall activities that make this season the coziest, consuming anything with apples in it is certainly at the top of our list. Be it in pie, cake, tart, cider, or donuts, APPLE is undoubtedly our favorite fruit flavor of the season!

That’s why we developed our own Pinkly Perfect version of Apple Sangria to enjoy on a crisp fall day with friends. If, like us, you look forward all year to a crisp October day spent visiting an orchard, surrounded by vibrant foliage and fellow sweater-clad folks carrying apple-grabbing poles and barrels to overfill with fresh apples until they’re too heavy to carry, we have JUST the treat for you to enjoy using your seasonal bounty.

Go ahead and soak in the warm sun and cool air, bounce around on a hayride, laugh with your gals as you compete in a cider donut-eating contest, and then retire to your cozy living room with our delicious Pink Sangria and a fun game! Whipping up this cocktail is easy as pie (scratch that, it’s MUCH easier than pie), and can be made as a single serving or in a pitcher for a group (multiply recipe by number of people.) While hard cider and fresh apple juice ground this sangria with a tart, crisp taste of Autumn, the infusion of raspberry adds a delicious sweetness that makes this drink unique. And of course, the resulting pink color keeps the Pinkly Perfect girl in us smiling.

It’s no secret that pumpkin-flavored treats are highly coveted this time of year, and their annual emergence is something we unabashedly look forward to. The anticipation that builds all year for a flavor of beverages, snacks, and desserts that is only available for a small window of time is exciting!

While Starbucks advertises their beloved PSL with lots of flair and Trader Joe’s has an entire section of their store dedicated to pumpkin-flavored goodies (which are quite delicious!), you may not realize that some of your favorite Jersey Shore ice cream parlors bring this flavor to their menus once the summer has ended! We’ve rounded up all the best spots to score pumpkin ice cream the next time you’ll be spending a fall day enjoying the shore this month. Cozying up in your favorite Pinkly Perfect sweatshirt and enjoying this seasonal treat with a great book on the beach sounds like an ideal way to spend a Saturday afternoon to us.

To me, fall is changing leaves, apple cider, oversized sweaters, plaid jackets, pumpkin-everything, and football. While you wouldn’t necessarily think of pink when watching your college team score touchdowns as you take another bite of perfect game-time nachos, think again! There are actually some secret pink facts about football that we can’t wait to share with you. From pink locker rooms to overwhelming support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, both college football and the NFL can be pretty pinkly perfect.

University of Iowa Opponent’s Locker Room

Let’s start with the University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium where the locker room is entirely pink. Yep—pink everything! Pink floors, pink lockers, pink walls, pink toilets. This is our kind of locker room but it wasn’t decked out this way to please the average pink-loving gal. In fact, this locker room is actually thought to be why Iowa’s so successful when playing home games. Iowa’s coach from 1979 to 1998, Hayden Fry, graduated with a degree in Psychology and read that pink has a calming effect on people (maybe why we love it!). So he ordered the visitor’s locker room be painted entirely pink to psychologically defeat the opponent team before the game even started. Sneaky…

Penn State Nittany Lions Original Uniform

A quick CAD of what the OG PSU uniforms looked like. Picture from http://onwardstate.com/2014/12/04/its-time-for-penn-state-football-to-wear-pink-black-throwbacks/.

You may associate Penn State’s Nittany Lions with blue and white, but did you know their original uniform colors were pink and black? In October of 1887, sophomore, junior, and senior students selected pink and black to be the school’s colors. But due to the sun, pink faded to white and the students opted for blue and white instead in 1890.

NFL Breast Cancer Awareness Month

In 2009, the NFL Players Association and the American Cancer Society teamed up to create a Crucial Catch Campaign, that encouraged women to get regular mammograms. Since its inception, the campaign has raised over $15 million from sales of pink merchandise, also seen on NFL players during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, including footballs with pink ribbon decals, pink wristbands, gloves, hats, towels, chin straps, and shoelaces. They also throw pink coins for the coin toss and the cheerleaders sport pink pompoms, shirts, and wristbands. The merchandise players’ wear is then autographed and auctioned off.

University of Florida coach, Dwayne Douglas, and Dr. Robert Cade developed this quintessential and colorful sports beverage in 1966, when head coach noticed his Gators were losing weight and suffering from heat stroke during training. They developed what is now known as Gatorade to replenish the players with sugar, salt, and electrolytes. After much taste testing and alterations (apparently the original version was “disgusting”), the drink went on the market in 1967 and is still the drink of choice for college and professional athletes. While we don’t know for sure what color is always hiding in those Gatorade bottles, there is a pretty pink Gatorade that we like to think some players prefer!

If summer were a food, it’d be one of those over the top pink milkshakes with an ice cream sundae on top, cotton candy swirl, and covered in funnel cake, tossed down with an iced coffee. And if you truly embraced all the quintessential summer sweets while visiting your favorite boardwalks this summer, your body may be in need of a slight reset before hitting the ground running this fall.

Something we like to do at Pinkly Perfect is give our stomachs a nice refresher course in nutritious fruits and vegetables to rid ourselves of added sugar cravings that we so excitedly indulged in from Memorial Day until Labor Day.

While juice cleanses are a dime a dozen in today’s world, one we are so excited to tell you about is JuiceBrothers, a company made up of four friends who in 2013 decided to fill the void of cold-pressed juice options in Holland who has now expanded to New York City.

JuiceBrothers sent us their Deep Cleanse, perfect for someone new to juicing (me!) and it was both effective and tasty. Overall, every juice we tried was delicious and energizing but the Vanilla Sky (tasted like a milkshake!), Green Routine, and Dutch Spice were my favorites. While we only tried their cold-pressed juices, we are majorly eyeing their Coconut Dream Smoothie (Coconut meat, coconut water, honey, vanilla) and Acai Choco Protein Bowl (Acai, banana, pear, cacao, almond butter, vegan protein powder topped with granola, banana, cacao nibs, and coconut flakes).

Dutch Spice–one of our favorites from JuiceBrothers!

What makes JuiceBrothers unique to other juices out there is that they are cold pressed and don’t include fiber, which can upset a digestive system if it’s not used to it. All fruits and vegetables are organic and their juices are proven to boost immunity and promote overall well being. Just one day of juicing and we feel so alert and clear-headed!

Getting ready for a typical fall day of football watching and beer? Swap out your drink of choice for Dragon’s Breath, made of pear, apple, carrot, grapefruit, beetroot, lemon, ginger, and perfectly resembling an autumn sangria, except all organic, raw, vegan, dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, and guilt-free! It’ll keep you energized for all touchdown high-fiving and won’t leave you feeling groggy the next day.

Dragon’s Breath–a refreshing afternoon pick-me-up!

While JuiceBrothers definitely jump-started our new fall self-care routine, we also recommend the following:

Investing in a lotion that will help protect the skin once temperatures drop